Out of the Fire
by MegTDJ
Summary: It never gets any easier. Missing scene for Out of MindInto the Fire, 15 in the Love Comes Softly series. DanJan


Title: Out of the Fire  
Author: MegTDJ  
Category: Missing scene; drama  
Rating: K+  
Pairing: Daniel/Janet pre-ship   
Spoilers: Out of Mind, Into the Fire.  
Summary: It never gets any easier. #15 in the Love Comes Softly series.  
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1, its universe and its characters are not mine. The story itself is, however, so please don't archive without my permission.

Author's notes: Many thanks to Misty and Kerri.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

**Out of the Fire**

Janet sat down at her desk and cradled her weary head in her hands. She needed to get herself together and stop shaking before she went back in there. She was the Chief Medical Officer of this base, after all. She was supposed to remain detached while performing her duties.

Still, this was the second time she'd had to resuscitate Teal'c in the past week. Seeing what SG-1's mysterious enemy had done to a man ten times as strong and vital as the average human didn't leave her much hope for Colonel O'Neill, Sam, and Daniel's survival.

She looked at the clock, and realized it was almost time for Cassie to come home from school. She dreaded making their regularly scheduled phone call that afternoon. The girl was starting to suspect that something bad had happened to SG-1, and Janet wasn't sure how much longer she could brush off all of her questions. If they really were dead, Cassie deserved to know.

Then again, they might still be alive. She wished Teal'c would wake up just for a moment and tell them what happened.

After a minute or two of peace and quiet, she dragged herself back to her feet and left the office. She returned to Teal'c's room to find one of the nurses preparing to leave.

"I'll take over here," Janet said, taking a seat by Teal'c's side. "You go on home."

The nurse seemed reluctant to leave, and Janet knew why - every one of her staff knew how long Janet had been on duty. What they didn't know was that even if she went home right then and went straight to bed, she'd be just as awake there as she was here. She may as well be doing something useful while she still could.

Once she and Teal'c were alone, Janet allowed herself to relax against the back of the chair. She rubbed her face with her hands and sighed. "Well, Teal'c," she said quietly, "it's just you and me again."

She didn't know why she kept talking to him like that. He was completely unconscious, with no hope of waking up anytime soon. He wasn't even in a coma, so the chances of him hearing her even subconsciously were slim at best. She just felt better in herself when she spoke out loud to him - in some small way it made her feel as though he was going to be okay.

And he had to be okay. She needed him to be okay. She couldn't lose all of her friends at once. Cassie couldn't lose all of her surrogate parents at once.

Suddenly a sense of déjà vu swept over her. She wondered how many times she'd be stuck in this position, not knowing whether the members of SG-1 were dead or alive.

"It's not going to get any easier, is it?" she mused aloud. "In fact, I think it's getting harder."

She looked down at Teal'c and listened for a moment as the monitor beeped steadily along with his heartbeat. Out of all the people under her care, she would have thought Teal'c would be the least likely to end up like this - attached to every piece of equipment they had at their disposal, looking as helpless as a child despite his bulky form.

God only knew what SG-1 had gone through that had left Teal'c in this condition. She knew he'd received his injuries while doing everything he could to protect his teammates, but some selfish part of her wanted to scream at him that _it wasn't enough!_

"Why did they leave you behind?" she asked, almost in a whisper. "Why you, and not..."

She stopped herself before she could even finish that thought, and rubbed her face again angrily. She knew it was just because she was tired - logic always seemed to fly out the window when she went a few nights without sleep.

Teal'c was alive, and she was going to do her damnedest to keep him that way. They would find the others, and if they were injured, she would patch them up as she always did. That was just the way they did things around here, and she couldn't see any reason why they should change the routine now.

Bracing herself, Janet left Teal'c's side and headed for the telephone. It was time she had a talk with her daughter.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

_Two weeks later..._

"Medical team to the gateroom."

Janet was ready to go in less than two seconds, and ran alongside a handful of medics as they hurried to the gateroom. She wasn't sure what to expect, but she knew what she was hoping for - the rescue teams returned with SG-1.

"I'm _fine_. Honestly. The Goa'uld is dead."

Janet heard Colonel O'Neill's voice before she'd even entered the room, and she could hardly keep her excitement in check. It really was SG-1!

Her eyes scanned the faces as she stepped through the doorway, taking a quick mental headcount of all the people she knew had gone on this mission. Sam and Colonel O'Neill she saw right away, as the colonel was standing right next to the door with Sam hovering over him worriedly. General Hammond was the next to catch her eye, and she gave him a smile and a nod when he looked her way. His plan to seek help on Chulak had obviously worked, because next to him stood Teal'c. She knew she was going to love hearing the story of what went on leading up to SG-1's rescue.

As she started taking a tally of the other team members, she realized that there were a few faces missing, and it filled her with a sense of dread. She hated to admit it to herself, but there was one face she was searching for more desperately than the others.

Where the hell was Daniel?

She struggled to bring her thoughts back into focus when she realized General Hammond was talking to her. "...Colonel O'Neill an MRI," he was saying. "The Tok'ra operative told him the Goa'uld was dead, but we can't be too sure."

"I'm fine," Colonel O'Neill insisted.

"I'm sure you are, Colonel," Hammond said. "Just taking every precaution."

Colonel O'Neill rolled his eyes and pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "It's Daniel you should be looking at, Doc," he said.

Janet felt her stomach turn over. Daniel was the one needing medical attention? Where was he? Why weren't the medics taking him to the infirmary? What was wrong with him?

She followed the direction of Colonel O'Neill's thumb across the room, and there she found him, sitting at the base of the ramp with his right leg stretched out in front of him and a faraway look on his face.

At first she was relieved, as the blood on his pants didn't indicate that his injury was severe, but then she got a better look at his face. What she had initially taken to be exhaustion actually looked more like... trauma.

"Daniel?" she said gently as she approached.

He didn't move a muscle.

"Daniel?" she repeated. She reached out a hand to touch his shoulder, and he jumped a little at the contact before looking up at her. "Hey," she said. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm... my leg," he said, gesturing vaguely towards his right leg. "My first shrapnel wound," he added with a forced smile.

Janet smiled, again relieved to see that he seemed to be okay. "Well, let's get you onto a stretcher so we can get you fixed up, hmm?" She motioned for one of the medics to bring a stretcher over to her, and helped Daniel climb aboard once it was ready.

He was hustled off to the infirmary before she had a chance to follow, so it was a few minutes later when she saw him again. She purposefully sought him out after setting up Colonel O'Neill's MRI, anxious to see the extent of Daniel's injuries.

Dr. Warner was just prepping him to begin stitching up what seemed to be a sizable gash in his leg, so Janet sent him off to look after Colonel O'Neill and took his place by Daniel's side.

Warner gave her an odd look before he left, and Janet didn't really blame him. She did, however, have a good reason for her actions - Daniel was lying on his back with his hand over his eyes, his jaw clenched and every muscle in his body tense. He didn't even move when Janet entered the room or spoke, so it was obvious that he was in a world of his own. Considering the fact that it had been Hathor who had kidnapped SG-1 and held them captive for weeks... Janet knew how to put two and two together.

Janet laid a hand on his stomach before she got to work. "Daniel?"

He lowered his hand to his chest and rolled his head to the side. "Go ahead," he said without actually looking at her. "I'm ready."

Janet smiled softly and began tending to the wound. Thankfully, although it was quite deep, twelve stitches were all that was needed to mend the tear in his thigh. Too bad the emotional wounds wouldn't be so easy to fix.

"Okay, you're all set," she said when she was finished. "Are you injured anywhere else?"

Daniel shook his head. "No. Thank you."

Janet wasn't convinced. "Are you sure you're alright?" she said knowingly. "I heard about what happened... that Hathor was the one who took you, and that she implanted Colonel O'Neill with a symbiote right in front of you. I can't imagine what you've been through the last few weeks, so if there's anything you need to talk about..."

Daniel slowly sat up and swung his legs over the side of the cot. "No, I'm fine," he said. "Really. We were in cryogenic suspension most of the time anyway."

She just gazed at him openly without saying a word, hoping he would continue of his own free will.

This seemed to be the right thing to do. "It, um..." He stopped and swallowed convulsively before continuing his sentence. "It kind of... brought everything back... you know?"

Janet nodded sympathetically. She knew all too well what he was talking about.

"She's dead, you know," Daniel said after a moment of silence. "Hathor. Jack tossed her into the cryogenic vat."

Janet returned Daniel's small smile, knowing the knowledge that Hathor was no longer out there waiting for him must come as a great comfort to him.

"I just wish I could have been there," he added.

Janet gave a short laugh. "So do I," she said.

Daniel ducked his head as his smile widened. Then all of a sudden, it vanished again. "There were times I wished you were there," he said, looking at her through his eyelashes as though he were embarrassed by the statement. "When I first woke up and they told me everyone I knew was dead, I thought maybe Cassie might still be alive, at least. Then I started thinking about you, and how devastated you must have been when we all arrived in stasis, and there was nothing you could do to revive us."

"That would have been hard," Janet agreed. "Although I think it was harder these past few weeks not knowing whether you were dead or alive." She stopped herself from saying any more when Daniel looked up at her with sympathy and regret written all over his face. God, she'd missed those eyes...

She shook herself out of that train of thought and quickly added, "But it's all over now, Daniel. Try not to dwell on it too much, okay?"

Daniel nodded. "Right. I'm just glad to be home."

Janet almost said, 'I'm glad you're home, too,' but she stopped herself just in time. Instead she said, "If you ever need to talk..."

"I know where to go," Daniel finished with the air of a schoolboy reciting a lesson. Then in all seriousness, he said, "Thanks, Janet."

Janet smiled and patted his knee. "Oh, and by the way," she said, "Cassie has been worried sick about you guys. As soon as you've been cleared and have had a good meal and some rest, how would you feel about coming over to my place for a little while? Maybe just spend a couple of hours with her so she knows you're alright?"

"Sure, that sounds good," Daniel said, noticeably brightening up as soon as she mentioned Cassie's name.

Janet smiled to herself as she left the room moments later. Thank God for Cassie, she thought. Never was there a better way for a doctor to keep close tabs on her patient. She felt so much better knowing she could at least keep an eye on him, even if he never completely opened up to anyone about his thoughts and feelings over the past few days.

She knew he was far from being out of the woods, so to speak, where his emotional issues were concerned, but after their short conversation she felt reassured that he was at least out of the fire.

The End


End file.
